Editor

The film event "PICTURE EUROPE! The Best of European Cinema" came to an end now in Madrid after stops in Munich and Copenhagen with packed cinemas and enthusiastic cinema-goers.
"Compared to the previous year, we could post considerable increases of 59 per cent altogether. We reached a total of almost 4000 admissions in the three cities," Renate Rose, EFP managing director, concludes after the second round. "The project seems now to be becoming established. Our additional offer to distributors and exhibitors to see the films with an audience and meet up at a networking lunch was also very well accepted." After this year's success, all of the three cinema-managers have already expressed great interest in a continuation of the project in the coming year.

Under the banner of "Let's see what's happening at the neighbours!", European Film Promotion (EFP) had presented 11-13 national box office hits and film highlights from the neighbouring countries on the big screen for a week at a time in Munich, Copenhagen and Madrid from February to April 2008. This was the second year EFP was able to organise this European event in cooperation with selected cinemas (Gloria Filmpalast/Munich, Grand Teatret/Copenhagen, Cinemas Princesa/Madrid) and the support of the MEDIA Programme of the EU. As in 2007, Volkswagen was the event's main sponsor.

The opening of PICTURE EUROPE! was celebrated in the three cities with guests from the local film scene; most of the films shown could be presented by their director or an actor, including Jan Sverák and Jan Budar (director/actor of Empties, Czech Republic), Albert ter Heerdt (director of Kicks, The Netherlands), and Ferenc Török (director of Overnight, Hungary).

Enrique González Kuhn, cinema director and distributor (Alta Films) in Madrid, sees a growing interest in PICTURE EUROPE!: "We were very happy to host this wonderful European project again in its second year. With the increase in box office, a marvellous opening celebration with almost 400 visitors, and very interested audiences thereafter, we see this project now becoming established in Madrid. As a distributor, I also took the opportunity of seeing these films with the public and enjoyed meeting my colleagues at the lunch organised by EFP and Pilar Torre from ICAA for distributors in Spain to initiate a discussion on European cinema."

Denmark and its capital Copenhagen hosted PICTURE EUROPE! for the first time. Kim Foss, Cinema operator (Grand Teatret) and distributor (Camera Film) comments: "We are already looking forward to next year. Not only did we enjoy adding a little competition to the ever dominant Hollywood films, but we also managed to gain attention for non-Danish European films - a demanding task considering the huge market share held by local films in Denmark."

Kurt Schalk, head of marketing for Kinopolis, Munich, echos the positive assessment: "We are convinced that this atmospherically and thematically very attractive film event will become established in Munich. The concept is very good and offers an excellent and rare opportunity to have a look at our European neighbours. I am also very pleased with the selection of films. We had all genres in the programme and could show the whole range of filmmaking in Europe from humorous through to melancholic films."

Programme, background information, trailers, press downloads at www.picture-europe.eu